The Wizard And The Dragon (35 page)

The area was large but had no other
exits or tunnels leading from it. The middle of the pit had been cleared away,
either by the troll or some previous occupant. The rocks had been pushed to the
outside walls of the area, and there were the remnants of a fire in the middle
of the space. The corpse of the sheep and the farmer had been dumped
unceremoniously next to the ash and charred pieces of wood. Kate couldn’t see
the troll anywhere and crept forward until the entire pit was visible. The
troll was gone.

She stood upright slowly and walked into
the light. There were bones strewn around the troll’s den. There were piles of
filth next to them. Several sheep skulls and those of other animals she
couldn’t recognize. A skull of another troll, she guessed, and at least one
heap of human bones and its skull neatly placed on top as if it was on display.
The pit was large but had no hiding places for something the size of the troll.
It wasn’t there.

She looked back into the cave where she
had come from and that’s when she heard it: a low growl coming from above. She
saw the feet first, its chipped claws extending over the rim of the pit. Its
arms were full of snapped branches, freshly torn from the trees around the pit
it had climbed out of it. The troll stared mutely down at her for a moment
while they exchanged glances, as if neither could believe what they were
seeing, before the monster erupted.

The firewood was tossed into the air and
the troll roared as it fell. She saw no evidence of the wound the pitchfork had
left in its stomach but it moved too quickly for her to ponder on its recovery,
diving down into its lair and bearing down on Kate, its intruder. She held the
sword out as the monster lumbered toward her, as if the weapon would somehow magically
ward it off. If anything, the monster only increased its speed.

Don’t think, just do. Don’t think, just
do. Don’t think, just do.

The sword felt foreign in her hands, but
it wasn’t heavy. Her body was used to holding it. She stood and watched as the
troll raised its claws to slash at her, an overhead attack that would come down
and puncture her skull. She stared, transfixed, as it moved its claws, at first
paralyzed by indecision and then by the rapid processing of what was happening
in front of her.

Just do.

Claws up. Coming down. Torso vulnerable.
Doesn’t think you’re a threat. Drive forward. Sword first, into its chest, push
it down. It’s strong. You’re stronger. Lunge into it. Pin it down, roll away,
grab sword.

The troll’s claws were above its head.
She led with the blade as she charged forward, putting her weight against the
sword and thrusting off the stone floor with all the strength in her legs. The
claws stayed above the troll’s head as the sword pierced through its stomach,
directly below its sternum. The monster toppled backwards from the force she
put into it, sliding the sword in deeper as she fell forward with it, skewering
it to the floor. The troll thrashed instantly as its back collided with the
stone, slashing wildly with its arms and legs. She rolled away without losing
any momentum from her forward thrust, dodging its attacks easily and then
spinning back, grabbing the sword’s hilt and yanking it free before the troll
could pull it out and use it against her.

It’s bleeding black, liver punctured.
Heart now. Through the ribs. It’ll charge. Step to the side. Spin, slash its
back, Duck, step, duck, spin and parry with the blade. Twist. Then strike.

Kate pressed off her right foot and
launched herself to the left as the troll crashed into the wall behind her. She
turned as she landed, slicing cleanly along the troll’s back and ripping the
flesh along its spine. It screeched and snapped around on its heels, raking its
claws in the air at her head; she was already ducking, then hopped back away
from its second attack, and ducked the third. She spun on her heels as she
stood upright, coming around to face the troll’s attack with the blade vertical
in front of her, meeting its claws with the sharp edge of the blade. The sword
slid between its claws and carved through the webbing between its thick
fingers, halving its hand in two all the way down to the wrist. She wrenched
the blade in her hand, splitting the wound wider and the troll howled in agony.
She yanked the blade free then, elbow behind her head in an instant and then
back forward in the next, plunging the blade into the monster’s chest, through
its heart, and out of its back.

Blood splattered the wall behind the
troll as the blade emerged. Its screaming stopped as its lungs filled with
blood and flooded out of its mouth. It went limp on the blade and then fell to
the floor, taking the sword from Kate’s hand with it. She blinked once and
found that she was panting, out of breath and her heart beating so fast she
could feel it in her ears and temples. She looked down at her hands like they
weren’t hers, capable of more than she was and belonging to someone else.

She yanked the blade free of the troll’s
corpse. It was still twitching even after it died, and she thought nothing of
it as she walked slowly back into the cave. The blade was covered in the monster’s
thick blood, an unblended mix of red and green like the two colors had been
braided in strands together rather than whisked into one uniform color. It
dribbled on the floor of the cave as she walked but she didn’t notice until she
was back outside, standing at the entrance in front of Calder.

“You killed it then,” he said, nodding
at the sword.

“Yes,” she said quietly.

“Without me,” he added.

Kate stared at him. Questions were ready
to burst out of her now. Her body felt like the blade had, foreign and wrong,
misused and worn wrong like the armor she had haphazardly strapped on over her
clothes.

“How are you going to harvest it?”
Calder added.

“What do you mean?”

“You always harvest a troll’s organs and
its blood,” once again he was looking at her like he was explaining something
as simple as the weather. “You didn’t bring any oil so you must have chopped
its head off to stop it from regenerating. The blood will be ruined by the time
we get back. We should have gone home for the jars first.”

Her fingers tensed around the hilt of
the sword. She stared at him and felt numb.

The troll will have regenerated by now.

She turned as the roar came out of the
cave. The troll was slouching out and into the light. The wounds on its chest
were already healed. She saw its claws, part of its right one still hanging
loose and flapping against itself as it staggered toward them. She heard the
sound of Calder drawing his sword cleanly from its sheath. She moved without
thought, in tandem with the barrage of directions that came into her head now
instead of responding to them.

She took a step forward
with her right foot and then turned on it,
bringing the blade over her shoulder and cleaving through the troll’s attack.
The blade felt as light as air in her hands, severing the troll’s arms from the
rest of its body as it sliced through them. She used both hands in the final
advance, swinging the blade horizontally in front of her and through the
troll’s neck. The head popped off in a shower of red and green blood, launched
away from its body and rolling when it hit the ground as if it had been knocked
off rather than cut.

The troll’s body collapsed once again,
spluttering blood out of its exposed neck but finally dead for certain. She
turned and saw Calder staring at her, eyes wide and then quickly narrowed. He
took a step to her, still holding the sword at his side. He took one more step
and then raised it at her.

“Who are you?”

She closed her eyes.
So close.
She silently cursed herself. One mistake, right at the end, so close.

“Who are you!” he roared.

“Kate. I’m Kate,” she opened her eyes.

“No, no you’re not. Kate would never have
made that mistake. It’s a troll. The first thing she ever taught me to hunt.
The first thing we ever killed together, protecting this town. Over and over
she told me, burn it when it falls. Failing that, cut off the head. No, what
are you?”

She stared back at him. She lowered the
sword to her side. He took another step forward, pointing the sword closer to
her chest, taking the opening like she hoped he would. She struck her fastest
yet, the sword a blur even to her own eyes as she knocked Calder’s weapon
cleanly out of his hand. It landed somewhere to the side, clanging on the
ground before it came to a rest.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” she said
softly.

“What did you do with Kate?” his mouth
was curled up in fury. “How did you take her place? She always said
shapeshifters weren’t real, they didn’t exist, but she had to be wrong. What
did you do to her? Tell me that at least,” his cheeks were flushed and his eyes
were close to tearing.

No way around it now,
she thought and hated that it was true. She lowered the sword once again and
began to explain. She left nothing out, telling him about the previous night
and morning with every detail that she had witnessed. His expression sobered
quickly at the mention of the poison and then furled up again at the line about
not trusting him. He had slumped down against a tree by the end of it. She had
placed the sword on the ground and leaned against the rock wall of the cave.

“That explains a lot,” he murmured.
“Whatever it is you’re wearing. I think we took that armor from bandits months
ago. You were going to take it apart for scraps. The sword, too. I thought you
were punishing me.”

“Why? What happened between the two of
you? Why not trust you?”

“The two of you?” he repeated, tasting
the words. “Here I was relieved that you weren’t an imposter but in a way my
Kate is still dead isn’t she?”

Calder looked over at her. His eyes were
filling with tears again. The reality of what she had told him finally sinking
in. The expression she had seen on his face many times that day was back and
she suddenly knew that it hadn’t been anger she was witnessing but pain.

“You really don’t remember anything? We
went to Bancroft’s Dam last year. We found the vampires and garvores in the
sewers. No? The ogre that attacked the town six months ago? Further back then,”
his eyes were twitching again as he thought rapidly. “The ghoul of Charn. The
giant boar of Newmark?”

She shook her head.

“Eight years ago. The gramarg of
Latterton?”

“I don’t even know what a gramarg is,
Calder,” she said gently. “Or any of those places you keep naming.”

“Nothing. Gone. Why would she do this?”

“I told you about the note. She said it
was necessary. That she’s, I’ve, done it many times before.”

“Bullshit,” he snapped. “Bullshit!
You’re older than you look. Your potions help that. Even I’m older than I look
thanks to those, but you’re not
that
old, Kate. She was lying. She would
have told me.”

“Just like she told you about wiping her
memory this time?”

“No. We came back home. She said she
wanted some time alone after what happened,” his words trailed off. He had been
scowling at her but his expression turned vacant, staring off for a moment and
then looked back at her. “That’s why she did it. Varis. Do you remember Varis?”

“Is that a person or a monster?”

“Both, she’s both. Varis. Think. Nothing?”

Kate shook her head.

“Fuck!” he shouted suddenly, his voice
echoing back around them. “So you get to forget and I’m stuck with it? Fuck!
Fuck you! Fuck her!”

“What happened? Tell me. Who is this
Varis?”

“No,” he put his hands on the tree trunk
behind him and pulled himself upright.

“Calder,” she said, harsher than she
knew she could.

“No,” he repeated. “You thought it was
important enough to erase all of your memories to forget. I’m not going to
replace the one thing you wanted to be rid of.”

She felt her teeth scrape together,
another automatic response that grated on her nerves. She watched him walk
toward the cave.

“What are you doing?”

“Rakestrow’s body,” he sighed. “They’ll
want to bury it.”

Kate stayed quiet as he left. She stared
at the troll’s corpse as she waited.

* * *

Calder
carried the body. He refused to let Kate help. They stopped at the farm. Kate
waited outside while Calder spoke with Thomas Rakestrow’s wife. He said little
when he came out and even less as they walked back into town.

They didn’t stop at the tavern or the
market. Calder’s glare was enough to even keep Anabelle away from buzzing
around Kate. They crossed the bridge and left town on the other side, following
the same road they had earlier back to Kate’s house. He stood with her at the
door still mentally weighing things before he spoke; his eyes and face visibly
showed when he was thinking, a trait that Kate was growing to like.

“What are you going to do?” he asked
finally.